As a scientist I should support such a project, especially one located
in the suburbs of Chicago. But at what cost? As a perspective, next
year's proposed budget for the entire National Science Foundation is
just over $6 billion.

This ILC reminds me of the Superconducting
Super Collider, a project that spent $2 billion dollars digging a
hole in Texas that was killed by Congress in 1993 once the projected
costs topped $12 billion.

Putting large dollars into a single basket will take away the
incentive to increase basic research funding in other scientific
endeavors. The main argument for the ILC at Fermilab is not that the
research won't get done, it just won't get done in the US. So let the
Europeans or the Japanese have the flashy expensive collider and let
the US do what it does best—basic research advancing science
over a large range of disciplines.